Review of recent research in applied experimental psychology:Implications for countermeasure development in road safety

Abstract

Much research that occurs within the field of traffic psychology leads
to the development of effective road safety countermeasures. There may,
however, be psychological research being undertaken in other domains, such
as aviation or mining, that has the potential to both provide new
directions for, and enhance the effectiveness of, current road safety
countermeasures. The purpose of this report, therefore, was to review
recent literature in the broad field of applied experimental psychology
and distil from it, where appropriate, recommendations for countermeasure
development. This work was completed in three stages.

The first task involved a review of research from selected journals in
the period 1998-2002. The research was sorted into logical headings. The
general headings that emerged were: information processing and cognition;
decision making; mental workload; and human error. The review included
research relating to specific fitness for duty issues, such as the effects
on driving performance of fatigue, alcohol and drugs. The major advances
in the understanding of these latter issues are occurring within the road
safety domain, and hence are included here. Summaries of the recent
developments in each of these areas are presented in the Executive
Summary. The immediate outcome of this review was the identification of
theories, frameworks, models, and countermeasures that are used in domains
other than road safety that may provide some insight into the development
of new ideas to be used for road safety countermeasure development,
including behavioural, engineering, and enforcement-based
approaches.

The second task involved consideration of the relevance of the research
reviewed for refinement and development of road safety countermeasures. To
achieve this, the literature review was distributed internally to a number
of MUARC researchers, most of whom are highly experienced with a broad
appreciation of road safety issues. They were invited to suggest possible
countermeasures deriving from the material reviewed, and to document these
under one or more of the following headings: education; training;
promotion/advertising; traffic engineering; legislation; enforcement;
licensing; vehicle design; and "other" countermeasures.
Recommendations for further research were included within one or more of
these categories. With the exception of the latter category, most
countermeasures for injury prevention in the road safety domain fell under
one or more of these headings.

The third and final task involved collating the outputs from the above
into a final set of recommendations for countermeasure development. Two
important outcomes of this review were noted: confirmation that there are
developments in behavioural research, not widely known in the road safety
domain, which have the potential to lead to the development of new
countermeasures; and the realisation that some of the information gleaned
can be used to refine existing countermeasures. Briefly, some of the key
findings relate to: developments in training techniques and methodologies
that have potential to enhance the effectiveness of the driver training
regime in Victoria; opportunities for the use of advanced simulation to
support improved design and evaluation of vehicle cockpit interfaces and
of traffic management systems; tools and techniques that are being
developed to support and optimise the design of the human-vehicle
interaction, in ways that reduce driver reduce workload and distraction;
and the absence of predictive models of human behaviour and error
causation in the road safety domain. Recommendations for countermeasure
refinement and development are outlined in detail in the final chapter of
this report.